Penn Township neighbors petition county to vacate Woodlawn Avenue

December 08, 2009|By ERIN BLASKO Tribune Staff Writer

PENN TOWNSHIP -- A group of residents with property abutting Woodlawn Avenue are petitioning to have a one-block section of the avenue closed to put a stop to speeding vehicles. Last week, an ordinance vacating the street between Toledo Avenue on the north and McKinley Highway on the south received its first reading before the St. Joseph County Council. It was assigned to the Land Use Planning Committee. Stephen Heberer, whose home sits at the southwest corner of Woodlawn and Toledo, filed the petition recently after consulting with neighbors. According to Heberer, vehicles regularly speed up and down Woodlawn, a residential street, at up to 40 mph, often ignoring the stop sign at Woodlawn and Toledo. Many are visiting what he considers a nuisance home in the 10600 block of Toledo, he said. "The neighbors all have kids and grandkids," Heberer said, "and all it takes is one car coming around the corner ..." "It's a 25 mph road," Dennis Clayton, Heberer's neighbor, said, "and they (drivers) just feel like they have to put the gas down." Clayton, who has lived at the southeast corner of Toledo and Woodlawn for 15 years, said he considered petitioning the county to vacate the road several years ago but wasn't sure he had the necessary neighborhood support. He has signed his name to Heberer's petition. The section of Woodlawn Heberer would like vacated is just one block long. Four properties abut the road, but all have either McKinley or Toledo addresses. If the road is closed, the neighborhood -- just east of the McKinley/Ash Road intersection in eastern St. Joseph County -- would still be accessible directly via Toledo, Star and Lawndale avenues and Beech Road, with indirect access via Birch Road. According to councilman Dale Devon, chair of the Land Use Planning Committee, petitions to vacate public ways are common, but often involve underused roads or alley ways. Vacating a road because it is dangerous or provides access to a nuisance is unusual, he said. "I've not heard that," he said, "... so that's a new one for me." In considering requests to vacate, the committee evaluates any possible "harm or hurt" to affected and surrounding properties, Devon said, as well as all applicable laws governing the property to be vacated. The committee's next scheduled meeting is Dec. 15, and Heberer's petition is on the agenda. The next regularly scheduled meeting of the county council is Jan. 5.Staff writer Erin Blasko: eblasko@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6187